Attilio Fontana, the governor for Lombardy, has shared his hopes for this weekend’s Derby D’Italia between Juventus and Inter to be played in front of fans.

Due to the Coronavirus outbreak in Italy, several football matches and other public events, including Venice’s famous carnival, have been affected.

Inter’s match with Sampdoria this past weekend was one of four postponed by Lega Serie A and their Europa League match at home to Ludogorets tonight is to be played behind closed doors.

There are restrictions in place regarding large scale public gatherings in the worst affected regions of the country including in Piedmont, where Sunday’s match is to take place.

A number of reports have stated it is almost certain that the game will be played behind closed doors but despite these reports, Fontana hopes this will not be the case.

“I hope that from today onward there is a regression of the virus so I can go to see Juventus vs Inter,” he remarked in an interview with Italian radio station Rtl 102.5 earlier on today.

There are a number of restrictions currently in place in the Lombardy region and Fontana then spoke on when these restrictions may be lifted.

“We are monitoring the situation. I am very calm. We will see how things are on Saturday and then we will decide.

“We have to understand if the spread of the virus slows down or maybe even stops. We we have positive results in this sense, our consultants, scientists and the superior health institute will give us the green light to mitigate and perhaps even revoke all these measures.

“We are the first people to want to reduce them because they are damaging to the economy and serenity of our citizens.”